George Herman "Babe" Ruth

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20S3S

June 8, 1978

Mr. Alan J. Weberman

6 Bleecker Street

New York, New York 10012

Dear Mr. Weberman:

Reference is made to your undated letter which was
received by the FBI on March 22, 1978.

Based on the information you provided, a search
of our records has been conducted and documents pertaining
to Mr. Ruth have been located.

Accordingly, your Freedom of Information-Privacy
Acts request has been reopened and is being held in chronological
order according to its date of receipt.

Sincerely yours.

Allen H. McCreight, Chief
Freedom of Information-

Privacy Acts Branch
Records Management Division

OFFICE OF FHE DIRECTOR

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20S3S

June 17, 1977

Mr. Alan J. Weberman

6 Bleecker Street

New York, New York 10012

Dear Mr . Weberman :

In response to your Freedom of Information-Privacy

Acts (FOIPA) request received on June 2, 1977, a search of
the index to our central records system revealed no information
to indicate that Babe Ruth (George Herman Ruth) had been the
subject of an investigation by the FBI.

If you believe Mr. Ruth's name or his alias may have

been recorded by the FBI incident to the investigation of other
persons or some organization, please advise us of the details
describing the specific incident or occurrence and time frame.
Thereafter, further effort will be made to locate, retrieve
and process any such records.

Sincerely yours

I

B w a a

A

>

-tf

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

JOHN M. CATHCART,

Plaintiff ,

V.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF
JUSTICE, et al..

Defendants .

Civil Action 76-953

r ^ i u

/

St p ^

■JAMES F. DAVtV, C.'c-d;

j TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

I

Washington, D. C.

July 28, 1976

i

j The above-entitled matter came on for a status

I

j conference in open court, beginning at 9:45 o'clock a.m., before:

;

I THE HONORABLE JOHN H. PRATT,

j United States District Judge.

I

i

APPEARANCES :

; Counsel for Plaintiff:

TIMOTHY SMITH, ESQUIRE

Counsel for Defendants :

i

i LYNNE E. ZUSMAN, ESQUIRE

j - oOo-

DENNIS K. BOSSARD. C. S. R.

OFFICIAL COURT RHP::?RrE'»^

ROOM U300-C. U. S. COURTHOUrfa
•,s A r> H I M G TO N . D

b

d

20CC !

2

I

^ Proceedings

“ DEPUTY CLERK: Cathcart versus Department of Justice,

•> jcivil Action 76-953.

4

5

fendant .

Mr. Smith for the plaintiff, Ms. Zusman for the de-

«

7

8

!)

lU

11

\2

13

14
If)
Ki

MR. SMITH:
THE COURT:
MR. SMITH:
THE COURT:

Good morning. Your Honor.

Yes, sir.

I'm Tim Smith, representing the plaintiff
What ' s the status? Have you been given

any information at all?

MR. SMITH: No, sir.

We have a motion under Vaughn v. Rosen pending for
a specified showing of what documents fall within the request,
and the Government has a motion to stay pending our response,
along with affidavits that are on file.

THE COURT: Is your request confined to the Justice

17 Department, or the FBI?

IH

l!i

•JO

‘_'1

MR. SMITH:
THE COURT:
MR. SMITH:
THE COURT:

It is confined to the FBI.

Confined to the FBI?

Yes, sir.

It concerns not one person, but I think

■j-j pome seven or eight.

w;! MR. SMITH: Seven, yes, sir, each of whom has been

•»1 deceased fifteen years or more.

i

I The necessity is for a story that is in preparation.

I

1

o

:i

4

5

f)

7

8

10

11

12

13

14

15

l(i

17

18

19

20

21

t;4

■2r>

I

I

15

have made.

MR. SMITH: Well, she has told us this morning, and i

I believe there is a record of how many files — '

THE COURT: Maybe she will tell you. I am not going i

I

to order the Justice Department do it. j

I

Can you tell him what you have already found?

MS. ZUSMAN : The only information that there is at
this point is that the seven names listed in the FOI request
can all be found in the FBI's main index.

THE COURT: In other words, the FBI has files on each

I

I

one of these people, including the former president of the
United States. I mean that would not be very helpful informa-
tion, would it?

MR. SMITH: Well, it would be very helpful to us to
know that there are files on Babe Ruth and Humphrey Bogart,
and so forth, which has been the subject of surveillance be-
cause of political beliefs.

MS. ZUSMAN: Having that name in the file is no
guarantee that it is the same particular person.

THE COURT: Herman E. Ruth, there is only one.

MR. SMITH: I want to make a confession. I have
been sitting here, and my eyes have been wandering down to
the podium, and I could not help but notice that counsel has
a list.

Our client badly needs to know what resources to

I

I

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20S3S

July 21, 1978

Mr. Alan J. Weberman

6 Bleecker Street

New York, New York 10012

Dear Mr. Weberman:

This is in response to your Freedom of Information-
Privacy Acts (FOIPA) request for files on George Herman
Ruth aka Babe Ruth.

As stated previously in our letter dated June. 17,

1977, a search of the index to our central records system
revealed no information to indicate that Babe Ruth (George Herman
Ruth) had been the subject of an investigation by the
FBI.

However, a search of references to Mr. Ruth's
name surfaced three identifiable documents. The portions
of the documents pertaining to Mr. Ruth have been processed
and are being released to you in their entirety.

If you believe Mr. Ruth's name or his alias
may have been recorded by the FBI incident to the investigation
of other persons or some organization, please advise us
of the details describing the specific incident or occurrence
and time frame. Thereafter, further effort will be made
to locate, retrieve and process any such records.

The search for information in response to your
request was limited to those records in our central records
system which are maintained at FBI Headquarters, Washington,
p. C. During any significant FBI criminal or intelligence
investigation, all substantive information developed by
one or more field offices is reported promptly to our
Headquarters where it is compiled in a single investigative
file. It is from such a file or files that the enclosed

Mr. Alan J. Weberman

records were copied. If you believe additional files of
a minor nature exist which may be responsive to your inquiry
and which were never reported to Headquarters, you may
write directly to any field office for those materials.

Sincerely yours,

Allen H. McCreight, Chie:^

Freedom of Information- ^

Privacy Acts Branch
Records Management Division

Enclosures (3)

2

•TOWN OF MORR ISTOWN

NE W^JE^E^ ••"

DEPARTMENT OF POLICE

DETECTIVE BUREAU
IDENTJFJCATJOK BUREAU ' 4 -

PHONE MORRISTOWN' 4-

September 21>1944*

iion. J. Edgar Hoover , Director ,
Federal Bixreau of Investigation ,
Washington, D. C.- •

Dear Director S

Enclosed please find a photo with a
memo of my recent appearence on St ati o n W EAF -New York with
Bab^^uth in connection with a b"o“y 3 program .

I thought you might like to add this
to yoTir collection , on the other hand it might give some one
an idea to use in connection with their juvenile work .

With best personal, regards , I remain

Very truly -yours.

A-*r Hoff,

Chief of Hollce.

okded A ^ ;/ -

J* /

•31 OCr 4'1944.

u\

< *M‘ rx <

PR.AB

■'a

THEY BOTH. WORK FOR KIDS

At- a recent broadcast on the Sioltan of Swat's
popular “Here’s Babe Ruthi" radio show, the
Babe, who Is devoting all his time to promul-
gating fair play and good sportsmanship in the
youth of the nation shakes hands with his guest
of honor. Chief Fred Ai Roff, of the Morristown,
N«J. police department, who,- likewise, is devoted
to the cause' of youth* Chief Roff instituted the
famous Morristown Police Junior Legion of Honor,
with a membership of over 500 boys, which has
solved most of the juvenile delinquency problems
in that to\/n, and inspired the boys to make of
themselves model' citizens * A team of boys from
the Morristown Junior Police are lined up to
hurl some fast baseball' questions at the Babe*

' • • V»*-?7 V^)'- - v*r '^ K ': . * v^/,* ’■<! • • -, v V'YV' V- 'v

,r * . - VI _ ' ^ p^ • ^ ' V \ ''* •-*•*- • S \ ’ *V *, ’-■ Vir»* ^ ^ *•

•::*;^;v.- • '• • > ■. ■ • */• ■• , * 'i . ’ * •'‘♦r.--.; ^'-vJ/; •

• lA > ‘ ■ . . */ -'■ ;*; \ : ' • .

- V .

■j . . I ccrtainlu enjoyed reo9iving your

-’'Vi' ‘Vi » .V ***.;': . ■ >

" Y ‘ ^'•'

i jr •> . < .5 A‘ ' .

i‘ 'i . i** " . , • . '

. Quinn
1 Candy

O'

^ cy '\

ri> m

■’. -"’* '•■ !'*’

‘4 : ^ t

-••:3 !^

j:a5£'^-r..!flc. »■?,

4 ^

3 - V "3 3

CUHHENT BIOGRAfHr

but in practice, he 6og^ 'irrth musical phrases to spend it in ic5S than - a week. ^laminj

just about exactly what Joyce did with words — 0‘ Mine'* is hi? worst record, he says be nc^xr

he breaks them up. t*>o}cnTly rcarranped their succeeded in gettinp off one note,
structure and accustomed order, and puts them Refertners

together into fasonaimg new poLticms. Pee i t n i

Wee Russell makes a clarinet sound like a Band Leaders l.LZ-m

uniqtie and inar\“clou5 instniment that he in- ' ^

vented for his own ruggedly indi\nduali£mc P*c lo i29 Mr 28 44 po

purposes. He is by turns hdarknis and tragic r Ramsey^ F. and Smith,

he can express the heart of melancholy ^^th men pi 74-5 1939

overR'helming directness, or make surprising

satirical comments composed of incredible dis- TtATtir F#^K fx 180
sonanccs and ornate ernbroideries,” And Hugh ’

sonanccs and ornate ernbroideries,” And Hugh
Panassie, the French criilc. ^^vites xri^Hot Jazs:
‘‘Among all boi clarinetists. Pee Wee Russell
is undoubtedly the one who uses the sc^rest
melodic style: short phrases of uncomplicated,
clear contour played in an even, measured tone.
It is the son of style which should be a model
to all others. Another p^liaritv of his ^
his ’dirT>'* tone, full of definite huskiness. Curi-
ously cnougK even though Pee W ee fills his
pla\'mg ^"iih these effects, his tone keeps its
finish and polisK . . . His int^tioos are vcr\*
beautiful and \5brant, and his attack is ex-
ceptionally forceful,”

George Frazier describes Pee W*ec Russell
as “tall and spindly, patent-leather hair

and a long, seamed face that reminds you of a
clown's. He is scarcely what you would call
an impressK'e-looking man- But that is t^fore
be takes his clarinet to his mouth and begins to
play. Then he is one of the most eloquent men
on the face of the earth. It is an aged clarinet
that he plays and it is kept serviceable only
through the judldous use of rubber bands, but
in Pee W ee’s hands it is an instnunent of sur-
passing beatm*.*’ The “aged clarinet” held to-
gether bv rubber bands is. however, a thing
of legend. Actually Pec Wee’s clarinet is one
of the most exr>ensive instruments made, and
he takes as good care of it as if it were his
child, sometimes taking his own overcoat off
to 'wrap around it on a particularly cold day.
There are a host of similar anecdotes about
Pee W*ee which may be just as apocryphal,
since he never both^s to contradict them —
after aJL they make good oubllcity. As
Charles PL Smith puts it, “Off the stand he
looks like the sort of person about whom anec-
dotes arc told, an attitude he inspires whether
he ^-ills it or not. One story told about him
concerns the Chicago HL on which tokens were
three for a oiiarter. Passing through the gate.
Pee W*ee paid a Quarter each time, pocketing
the two tokens change. Gradually they ac-
cumulated and he talked it over with an ac-
quaintance. He explained how he got the tok-
ens. and said, TCow what do I do with them?* ”
Pee Wee Russell was married to Mary S.
Chaloff on March II, 1^143. She also comes
from a musical family: her unde, Eugene
Plomikoff, was conductor of the Imperial

Rcffrr^ces

Band Leaders 1 :12-13+ J1 '44
' Cosmopolitan 113:42 K '42
Pic 15 :29 Mr 28 '44 por
Ramsev, F. and Srmth, C. E cds. Jazz-
men 'pl74-5 1939

Retired base-

ball star

Address: 173 Riverside Eh-., Kew York Cit^’

WEcn Japanese soldiers attempted to storm
the United States Marine lines on Cape
Gloucester, Kew Britain, in April 1944, they
charged to their deaths with the battle ary,
hell w'ith Babe Ruth!” Strange as it
sounded to other cars, it reflected the Babe's
status as a national hero and as a ^tnbol^ of
the United States, tmdimmed by his rctire-
ment. Nine years earlier Matsutaro Shoriki,
a Tokyo ncwsp>aper publisher, had been
stabbed by a member of the secret Warlike
Gods Society* for sponsoring the successful
barnstorming tour of Ruth's baseball team
in Japan. Evidently the Nipponese patriots re-
sented the arousing of Japanese admiration
for the Babe and enthusiasm for the American
game he played.

After the celebration of his fortieth birth-
da}' on Februaiy 6, 1934, Babe Ruth dis-
covered that he was a year younger. ha\Tng
been born in Baltimore, Marv'land, on February
6, 1895. His birth name was rcportedl}'

George Herman Ehrhardt, Just when and
why the Babe’s name became Ruth is not
dear, but he has called himself George Her-
man Ruth throughout his career. “His true
antecedents — that is. his father and^ mother
— apparently will always remain mist}' and
tmexplored,” sa 3 *s Paul Gallico. Ruth is often
referred to • as an orphan, but this the Babe
denies: “hfv folks lived in Baltimore and my
father worked in the [waterfront] distria
where I was raised,” he »ys. “\Ve were very'
poor. And there w'cre times when we never
knew w’bcre the next meal was coming frqm.
But I never minded. I was no w’orsc off
than the other kids w4th whom I played and
foughL” It was with considerable reluctance
that * the nnruK* George went to live at Sl
M aty's Industrial School, an institution staffed
by the Brothers of a Catholic teaching order.
(5ne of the staff. Brother Gilbert, took a
particular interest in the big, black-haired
seven-year-old and helped him to adjust him-
self. “Once I had been introduced to school
athletics,” Ruth recalls, “I was satisfied. and
happy. Even as a Id d I was big for my years,

Opera at Moscow until the Russian Revolu- * because of my size I used to get most

tvon: her brother. Herman Chaloff, is a com-
Ppser. * Out of the hundreds of records which
made with various bands he and
mf wife rcmcrabcT with snccial affection “Hello
Lola . Cooking”, The Eel”. “Em-

br^calkle ^ ou’" (on Commodore), and “Serc-
lo a Shyl(xk” (with Tack Teagarden),
to a Shylock” aiid “I’m Through
%\ith Lost^ art among his own compositions:
he made S^I.OOO out of the latter, and managed

any job I liked on the team. ... It was all
the same to me. All I wanted w'as to pla}'.
I didn't care much w'bere.”

At eighteen Ruth was “as funny looking
a kid as ever got a trouncing for enttmg
classes to go fishing” — and an outstanding
ballpbyer. Brother Gilbert w-rote to Jack
Dunn, manager of the minor league Baltimore
Orioles baseball team, suggesting that Dunn
come and see this promising youngster. After

MW

Mm

■”^i

•mm

•ix5?r-y?v^>r>«

mm

;'--»i¥SfffKSS^

sS

CURRENT tIOGR4PHr

7//i!7Un'/^M

fMjldl'J-M

U II miH\ 1

BABB RUTH

a half-hour observ-atlon of Ruth's pitching,
Ehinn offered to sign him to a contract, paj'ing
him $600 for a six-months season, and took
out papers as his guardian, _ W^en the eager
youth reported at the Oriole clubhou^ m
1914 the team's coach took one look and ^-
claimcd, ‘^Vell, here’s Jack’s newest babe
tk)w!’' And *The Babe’' Ru^ became and
remained, to all but a few intimates, for the
Test of his highly-puhlidzcd career.

It might be expected that a young man
making his professional debut would feel a
certain neni'ousness ; but not the Babe. His
self-confidence was justified before the month
was up, for, though Dunn had irot started
him in any regular games, Ruth pitch^ and
won an exhibition game against Conme
Mack’s'** Philadelphia Athletics, then at the
top of the National League. His »iao; »s
pitcher-outfielder with the Orioles (o&cially
the Bahimore-Proddence Club of the Inter-
Dadonal League) was doubled; at the end
of another month, it was increased to just
three times the amount originally agre^ on.
During this season the young f>uthpaw
plavcd in forn^-six games, of which he pitched
twmn-tR'o winners, nine

four ties; he batted -^1 and fielded .964; his
pitching average was J09.

-^\^th the Red Sox,” Ruth ^ays, **1
began to Icam a little baseball. ‘ • I

much of becoming

to hit ... but It was puchi^ 'uofc.

mv Umt in Boston.” After pl^.'W
gimes during ibe 19U seasoct. of J

pltcb^ thlrt>-twT> — eighteen woe. sue

^J.^«ttcrrd ooc Wo^

hiuer for a smut of
^ m Detroit, .hr Eabr nr^

^ battrr^Bof- \ c»rfL Ss» t r*. f.^

sri»«.-rtai T>

ptij^rvfHt-dinn.-UK^'.

^ cw.'h ^ tnwfra Ji- ^'Wtry

run in the w*orld ott brought a greater kick
than that!’' savs Ruth. His salarj- w^ gomg
op too. The Red Sox, who had started him
in 1914 at $1,300, almost trebled that amount
the following year, when his contract called
for $3,^. (E\*cn the most accurately reported
salary figures do not necessarily give a com-
plete picture of a player’s baseball income,
even apart from other sources. The players on
a World Scries team, for instance, share a
percentage of the profits w'hich ust^lly figures
out to a considerable sum. Exhibition games
^)i4ng m more. Bonuses arc used as a method
of payment according to mcriL The
tractua! amount, therefore, is to be regarded
only as base pay.)

In 1914 Ruth’s contract was sold to the
w’orld champion Boston Red Sox (American
l^eaguc) for a reported $2,900. (Called on to
plav in onlv five games during the s^son,
Ruth pitched four, winning^ two and k>smg
one, batting .200 and fielding 1.000. That
summer, when the pitcher was nineteen (but,
not aware of his true birth date, hc^ thought
he was Twenn*) he married Helen M oodford,
a sixteen-year-old waitress from Texas. They
had two cdiildren w'ho died in early mfanct*.
As might be expeaed of an undcrpritdlegcd
boy snddenlv come into money and public
notice, Ruth’ led a wnld and cxtra\agant iBe,
getting into >arious sorts of trouble. Bemg,
as he puts it, **cursed with an iron constitu-
tion, . . I could commit those excesses ...
without apparent harm for a numb^ of
years.

From 1916, when Ruth pitched and won
the longest game in World Scries history
(-fourteen innings, against Brookljm) to 1920.
the Babe plaved for Boston as pitcher-out-
fielder and, in’ 1918, as first baseman. (In that
year, too, he pitched and won two World
Scries games.) Bv then he was getting a
salary* of $7,000; the following year it was
$10,000. Although Ruth’s pitching aver^
w'cnt down 135 points during this period, ^
home runs increased; and in 1919 he
the league w*ith twcnn-i^c of them,
brought him to the attention of Colonel Rup-
pert, owner of the New Vo^ Yank<^_^o
bought him in Januan* 1920 for $12x000.
WTicn a pla\*cr is sent to* another team he
. tencrallv gets a bonus and an mcrcasc in
salary*' ’Ruths increase w-as a flat 100 per
i cent. It was with the Yankees that Babe
I Ruth began Hs “spceiacular and scandal-
spangled career” as a natioc^ly and even in-
tcmatiocaJly koovk-n pcn^Mality.

“It would be an unj-ar^ombk bore,'’ as
t John Terciwe MeOoveru said in Dvopeturr iXr-
l ctrtrrrs f*-r. "Xo arrhe I in detail] of Babe’s
: adhicA'ements as a baseball pUyer. Every’

^ scboolle»\ and pfactkally e\*ery adult in
^ • America k*>oms bis amaring persooal .his-
tory.” Tbr Aegir/er devxsics twentj’-

1 ihrW b*>o of fianc pnn to just the bas^oJl
rcetwds br ici -^-records most or all of which

rcetwds br Mn -=-rrcviTl> most or all of which
♦till «4a(9kl miMfcti a few, be. kd .the

Amre^-an Leairnr m bcczw runs from 1919
1^4 tbr wa< in in 1925) and again
trcA tbfc^h 1931. He played in the

Senr> iien) and most often on
tfcr w vezsg cbii. f Spr-\eu times). Pilchers
»rrr ■rwilbnc t*> risk one of his deadly

CURkENT tfOGRAfHY

45

y

n

dout<^ thai \hcy passed him by 2,056 times,
the 'world’s record for bases on balls. In 19^
the AmericaTi Leagnc voted Babe Ruth their
most 'v'aluabie player. From 1926 through
1931 and again in 1933 and 1934, he w*a5
picked for the League’s all-star team. By
any standard he v.*a 5 the greatest home ran
hitter in bistort', and — a t>*pically Ruthian
touch — he also holds the world’s record for
striking out 1,330 times.

By the time Babe Ruth joined the Yankees,
he had already acquired an unusual hold over
the public, such that a baseball crowd which
had reacted fairly casually to home runs by
other pla}'ers would become, in the '\\*ords
of the great pitcher Walter Johnson, "so
craz 3 ' with excitement that they were rcad 3 *
to tear up the stands" if Ruth drove out a
home run [even] when the game w*as already'
w*on and there was nothing particularh* at

stake If the opposing pitcher tries to

slip Babe free trans3X)Ttation to first ^ (a base
on balls) the\' take it as a personal insult — <.
The cro'^'d has become so accustomed to
seeing him knock out home runs that they
exp^ it from him, and they don’t give him
credit for his remarkable hitting otherwise."

Part of the explanation for the Babe’s
unprecedented box-office draw w-as, of course,
the incredible frequency* of his home runs —
fifu’-four in 1920, fifn'-nine the next year,
and then it fluctuated about the forties, rising
to sixty in 1927. But much, perhaps most, of
his popularity was due to his emotional appeal
to the fans, "He played ball,” 'v^.-rites Paul
Gallico in Foreu'eH to Sporty ‘'on the same
enormous scale on which he lived his Hfe,
mtensel 3 % ferv"entl\‘, and w*ith tremendous sin-
C^ty and passion. It w-as impossible to
watch him at bat without experiencing an
emotion. I have seen hundreds of ballplayers
at the plate, and none of them managed to
conve 3 * the message of impending doom to a
pitcher that Babe Ruth did with the cock of
his heaci, the position of his legs, and the
little, gentle w‘a\Tng o*f his bab feathered in
his two big pa'W's, • . , The Babe is the only
man 1 have ever known as spectacular in
failure as he is in success. Just as 'When
be connected the result 'was the most perfect
thing of its kind, a ball whacked so high,
wdde, and handsome that no stadium in the
entire countiy could contain it, so was his
strikeout the absolute acme^ of frustration.
He Would swing himself twice around until
his legs w'cre braided. Often he 'would twist
himself clear off his feet . , . Bver}’ move
that Ruth made brought some kind of answer-
ing sound from the crowd in the stands. . . .
Ruth's thro'ws to home plate from the outfield,
or to a base, so accurate that the recover
never had to move a step from his position
to recei\‘e them, alwa 3 's brought ripples of
incredulous laughter, the Tm seeing it but
1 don’t believe it’ kind. And of course his
home runs brought forth pandemomum."

The name of Babe Ruth appeared so often
in the sports columns that sport S'W.’ritcrs
thought up s>*non\Tn 5 . — "The Sultan of
S'wal”, *Trhe l^ng of Qout” even ‘‘The
Behemoth of Bust” They translated Babe
into Bambino, and then shortened it to
“Bam” for headline purposes. And the
Bambino prosided them with a constant

flow of colorful material on field and off.
For one thing, there was his pay, a salarj*
of $30,000 in 1921, $52,000 for each of the
five follo'wung vicars, ■ $70,000 from 1927
through 1929, and $80,0C)0 — ^more than that
allotted the President of the United States
— ^in 1930 and 1931. Kor do these figures
include prize monc}’ and bonuses; among
others, Ruth’s arrangement 'w‘ith Ruppert
specified that he 'w*as to receive $100 for
each borne run hit. Also, there w'crc 'the
crowds he attracted, w^hich justified his
huge income and, from an economic stand-
point, -w'Ould have justified a much higher
one: When Ruth was absent from the line-
up the Yankees’ ball games drew onl 3 ’ half
their normal 15 , 000 - 20,000 w’eekda 3 * patrons and
60,000-70,000 on Saturday's and Sundays.
The Yankee Stadium is still knowTi as "The
House that Ruth Built,” and right field is
still called "Ruthville.” There were his in-
numerable free appearances for charitable
organizations, especially the Knights of
Columbus, to 'yvhlch he belongs. There
were the Babe’s other and profitable activ-
ities: the five motion-picture shorts and
two futures, one 'with Anna Q. Nilsson,
in^ which he starred; "the ma^zine and
wndeh'-symdicated nc'wspaper articles under
his name; the books. Babe Ruih*s Chim
Book of Baseball (19^) and How to Play
BasehaU (1931), with “(jeorge Herman Ruth”
on the title page.

Another source -of income for the star —
and one which sometimes got him into
trouble wfith the baseball powers-that-be—
was his 'barnstorming in exhibition games
and vaudeyfille tours. Then there were
radio^ broadcasts and endorsements of com-
mercial products. Various sporting goods
and a candy bar used his name— and paid
generously for the priyilege. These financial
details were handled b 3 ' Christy Walsh, a
shrewd Irish sportswriter who managed Ruth’s
outside acti'vnties, syrndicated his articles, and
split the profits with him fifty'-fifty. (In 1924,
with the help of "Mrs, Babe,” W’alsh accom-
plished the incredible feat of persuading the
extray^agant and alyva\'s debt-ridden Ruth to
deposit all the money" thus earned in a trust
fund to protect his future.) There was 011 I 3 ’
one commercial exploitation of Ruth’s fame
from which he drc'iv* no profit: an enterprising
producer clipped newsreel shots of the BabS
in action and strung them together into two
shorts. Babe Ruth: How He Makes His
Home-Runs and Over ike Fence, using scenes
from photographs of practice sessions and
early* games. In 1920 Ruth sued Educatioiial
Films, Inc 4 for ^ an mjunction and damages;
but the application 'was denied bv the New
York Supreme Court, Appellate f>ivisIoii, on
thc^ ground that "the public’s interest in the
plaintiff’s current accomplishments . . . brought
his past activities within the field of permis-
sible new s coverage.”

"There arc some men to '^I’hom has been
given the faculty of living all their lives in
newsprint. Tbc}* have a natural attraction
for headlines.” As for George Herman Ruth,
"the onl 3 ' -walls be has eyxr kno\)t*n have been
the parallel columns of the newspapers.”
W'hatevcr he did seemed always to have
somehow a dramatic touch. In the summer

V

5

f

« \

4 ^

CaRftfNT ■IOGR4PHir

RUTH, BABR— Cort/murJ
o£ 1920 a man died of excitement A^^atching
the Babe hit a ball into the bleachers. In
1921 the slugger was so unmanageable that the
Yankees’ manager, -Miner Huggins, upheld by
Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis ***,
suspended him from pLaytng for a time. Dur-
ing the 1922 season George Herman Ruth got
into about as much assorted trouble as a man
could without being cither imprisoned or ex-
communicated as a result. He committed **thc
gravest sin in baseball,” leaving the field to
chase a patron whose remarks he had re-
sented; he drank too much, gambled far too
heavily, fought with Judge Landis and cveo’-
one else In authority, and ran into various
traffic charges and civil suits; he even played
bad baseball. At the. annual dinner of the
Baseball Writers Association, New York State
Senator Jimmy Walker (later the mayor of
New York) made a personal but public plea
to Babe Ruth to reform ^d make himself
worthy of the "dirty-faced kids in the streets”
who worshipped him — not to shirk his great
responsibiHty to the 3'oath of the nation.
And "Ruth robbed it of all cheapness, of all
sensationalism or everything that was vulgarly
maudlin, by getting to his feet and with tc^s
streaming dowTi his big ugly face, promisir^
the dirty-faced kids of the nation to behave,
for their sake. And then he kept his promise.

He was never in trouble agmu Nor did

it make him the less a picturesque char-
acter, because he never went sissy or holy
on the bo^'S. He retained all of his appetites
and gusto for living. He merely toned them
down.” Ever>*one read about the great refor-
mation. and c’vcryone loved ^be for it.

Returning from spring training in the South
in 1925 Ruth, who ordinarily ate some ten
daily meals punctuated with bicarbonate of
soda, felt the need of a snack. By one report,
it consisted of ten or twelve railroad station
frankfurters, w'asbed down w‘ith eight bottles
of soda pop. The result was a ease of acutcsi
indigestion, one w'hich caused the trip to be
intcmipted and the stricken man brought home
to New York City and rushed to Sl Vincent’s
Hospital. There “a baseball player lay close
to death, and an entire nation held its breath,
worried and fretted, and bought every e^-
tion of the newspapers to read the bulletins
as though the life of a personal friend or a
member of the family was at stake. . . . Even
in England the penny papers watched at his
bedside. That ft fame.” When Babe re-
covered the country — one might almost say
the world — breathed a great sigh of relief.
And, although his playing season was shortened
by his illness, Ruth had time to clout twenty-
five home runs before it came to an end.

There are tw*o stories about Ruth, both
attested to by reliable witnesses, which neatly
sum up the qualities that made him a beloved
figure. One occurred in 1926. when a child
named Johnny Sylvester lay seriously weak-
ened after an operation. laming that Babe
Ruth was Johnny’s particular idoL the doctor
dedded — perhaps with the help of some alert
newspaperman — that a visit from his hero
might give the child the wrill to live. So the
Babe came and chatted, gave Johnny an auto-
graphed baseball and then, before he left for
the stadium, promised to hit a home run that

afternoon and dedicate it to Johimv. And he
did.

Perhaps the most impressive single action
of Ruth’s career was seen in the 1932 World
Scries, the l^t in virhich he ever played. The
Yankees were opposing the Chicago Cubs on
the latter’s home grounds. The Cubs were de-
liberately "riding” the Babe — insulting and
reviling him — to make him lose his head; the
Chicago fans were obviously hostile. When
Ruth, who had already hit one home run,
came to bat again and missed the first pitch,
the crowd hooted him; w*hen he missed the
second, they laughed and booed as he calmly
held up two fingers to indicate that those
were only tw'o strikes, .And then, before the
third strike. Ruth pointed dramatically to the
center-field flagpole, showing that he would
drive the next pitch out of the park at that
point. And — ^incredibly — he did.

After the tragic death by fire of Babe Ruth’s
yoimg w'ifc, from whom he had been separated,
he couned the widow. Qairc Hodgson. w*ho
was a former Ziegfeld girl. Th^ were mar-
ried three months later, in .April 1929. The
ceremony w*as performed at a 6 :30 a,m. nuptial
mass, in order to avoid a crowd, but nonethe-
less some 150 strangers crowded around after-
wards to congratulate the national hero, (and
during the giving of the ring a photographer’s
flashbulb popped.) Next day the newly mar-
ried Babe opened the Yankees’ season with a
home run. Ruth adopted his wife’s daughter
Julia, then thirteen, five years older than his
owm Elorothy. The second Mrs. Ruth proved
to be an excellent manager who persuaded her
husband to save, ”kept him from going back
to his old ways,” and nursed him tenderly
through his illnesses, real and exaggerated.

In 1932 baseball began to feel the depression.
All salaries wxrc cut dowm, and the outcome
of Ruth’s annual dispute with Colonel Ruppert
was a salary no higher than the President’s;
the following year it ^w*as back to ^2,000.
In 1934 it was $35,000. In this, his last year
as an active player, the Babe hit only twenty-
two home runs. Then, having rounded out
tw*enty years in the American League, Ruth
left the Yankees. He had always expressed
an ambition to become a club manager after
his pla^dng days were over, and it .w*as ex-
pect^ that such a position w^ould be offered
him. No such offer came, how'ever. In
April 1935, Ruth joined the Boston Braves
(not of his old league, but of the National
Leagpie) as vice-president, assistant manager,
and part-time player w*itb a reported salary
of $30.0(W. After ninety-seven days with the
Braves, for whom he hit six home runs. Ruth
left the club because of a bad cold, a leg in-
jury, and endless bickering. In 1936 he pub-
lish^ a p^phlet of baseball advice. His
coaching of the National League’s Brookl>*n
Dodgers in 1938 was the Babe's last attempt at
professional baseball. He “drew more atten-
tion from the fans than the Dodgers and
their opponents combined.” but a reported
secret clause in his contract provided that Ruth*
w’as never to become manager of the Dodgers.

Writing m the January 1941 issue of Friday
Ed Hughes explained baseball management’s
“blacklist” of Ruth as due to resentment be-
cause he had "almost automatically raised the

CURRENT BIOGRAPHY

47

s

I

pay of every" ballplayer m the land'’ It is a GEORGE HERMAN Sec Ruth, B.

fact that other Dlavcrs would use his salary* ^

Address:

fact that other players would use his salary'
as a j-ardstick — -would say to their employers,
^I’m not Babe Ruth, but I’m worth three
quarters (or one-half or one- third) what he
■is to the club, so I should get three-quarters
or (one-half or one-third) of his salaiy*,"
Ruth was, says Hughes, **a one-man union
without realizing iL He forced the magnates
to shell out players* wages commensurate
with the gate receipts they helped to swell,'*
Asked by Hughes for a statement in the
matter, Ruth replied, don’t want to say
anything that makes me look like a bad sporL
You know — on accotmi of the kids,”

And so the ^be is in a paradoxical position.
He is still the idol of children w’ho could nc\"cr
possibly have seen him play— some of w'hom
w’ere not bom at the time — ^as w^ell as of their
elders. w*ho remember the days when he was
making his records. He is still sought after
for charin’ performances. He is still certain
of the loudest o\*ation anytime a crow’d
glimpses his huge six feet tw*o bulk or catches
wght of the distinctively pigeon-toed mincing
trot of his oddly slim ankles — and that is true
erv’cn of a non-baseball crowd. And yet, al-
though his unlisted telephone number still has
to be changed every few months because fans
manage to find it out and call him up so often,
there is, apparently, no place for Babe Ruth
in the game he led. Since his retirement he
has played himself in RKO’s Pride of the
Yankees (1942), a picturization of the life of
Lou Gehrig his brilliant runner-up for bat-
ting honors. In 1943 he began broadcasting a
fifteen-minute program over W’EAF on Satur-
day mornings and continued it in 1944; audi-
ence reaction demonstrated that he is still the
children’s idol. He has taken up golf and
bowling to keep dowm his W'eight; be has made
innumerable appearances at bond rallies and
has talked his deep bass voice hoarse enter-
taining ser\*ice men. He can’t go overseas on
a USO tour — ^half a dozen doctors have ab-
solute! forbidden it He can’t smoke or drink
or chew* tobacco any more, Stanley Frank
wTOte in the New York Post m April 1944;
‘^Tlie Big Guy was down and it was depressing
to see him without the ebullience and bounce
and lustA- bawdiness that you always associ-
ated wnth him, , . « *It’s hell to grow* old,’
Babe Ruth said plaintively. And it’s hell to
watdi him grow old.” (George Herman Ruth
isn’t equipped to handle a scdentaiy* life. He
iKn’er learned to enjoy the reflective pleasures.

References

Lit Digest S3:58 O 4 *24 i)or; 90:46 J1
31 '26 por

New Yorker 2;15. T1 31 '26 por

Newsweek 4:17 Jl 14 '34 por

Cook, T. R, cd. Essay's in Modem
Thought p9S-IQ4 1935

Galileo, P. Farew’dl to Sport p30-43
1941

Johnston, C, H, L. Famous American
Athletes of Toda^’ 1938
• Mefjovem, J. T. Diogenes Discovers Us
p73-«8 1933

Rutli, G. H. Babe Ruth's Own Book of
Baseball 1928

Spink, J. G. T. Baseball Register 1941

CURT June 29, 1881- Mnsioologist
h. 1781 Riverside Dr., New York Cit}*

Dr. Curt Sachs, one of the great lixdng (Ger-
man inusicologists, who has received refuge
and veneration in America, defines his held as
“the backbone of all musical knowledge. What
philology’ and historical research do for liter-
ature. musicology performs for music.” Its
special subjects of research — the /historical
study of musical instruments, investigation of
sources, gathering and organization of jdata —
have been Dr. Sachs’s life w'ork, for which be
has won international ^eno\^■n.

Curt Sachs was bom in Berlin on June 20,
1881, the son of Louis Edward and Anna
(Frolich) Sachs. As a youth he attended the
Kom'glichcs franzosisches G>'7nnasium in that
city; later he enrolled at the University of
Berlin, w'here he specialized In the histoiy' of
art and studied music histoiv* with (jscar
Fleischer, In 1904 be received his Ph.D. de-
gree for his thesis on the sculpture of Ver-
rocchio.

Thus Dr. Sachs’s early interests were dirided
between art and music, and he had already en-
tered the field of art criucism before be turned
to research in music. He then devoted some
v'cars to the intensive study of the subject
under Hermann Kretzschmar *and Johannes
W'olf. The first significant result of that
study was the publication of his historj' of
musical life at the Hohenzollem court.

V'hile deh'ing into hitherto unexplored fields
of music. Dr. Sachs gradually became con-
vinced that the musical instruments of the past
w’ould reveal as much about the quality of an-
cient music as notation could about the mel<xl 3 ’.
He bellev’ed also that the history’ of music
could be traced through a study of the musical
instruments of b^’gone ages. Accordingly’, his
first contribution to that knowdedge was his
Reallexikon der Musikinsirumente (a diction-
ary of musical instruments), published in 1913.
It was then considered the best authority in
the field. Later he met Erich M, von Hom-
bostel, an eminent scholar in comparative
musicology, with whom he collaborated in ar-
ranging a new’ classification of instruments
based on the principles of sound productkffk
The sy'stem c\»olved by’ them has since been
used in the organization of collections of in-
struments.

Widespread recognition of Dr. Sachs’s schol-
arship caused c^’cry’ important Carman institu-
tion of higher musical learning to seek his
scTV’ices. In 1919 the Berlin State Museum of
Musical Instruments entrusted him wfith their
precious collections. During the same year
be w’as appointed professor of musicology at
the University of B^lin and the following year
he was made professor of music history’ at
’the National Academy’ of Music. Several
years later the Academy’ for Church and School
Music offered him a professorship. Dr.
wIk) held the three professorships and the mu-
seum post simultaneously, still found time to do
prix-ate research, making public many impor-
tant works on his findings. He also prepared
a scries of phonograph records of ancient mu-
sia Tu’o Thousand Years of MblsIc, which was

\

^ ^ hi ^

OCTOBER 194B

has two duldrcn, Delos WiLscoi, Jr^ and Thomas
Ijmce.

References

A’v^don Week 46:13 Ap 19 *46
K Y HcraJd Tribune pl5 Ag 9 *46
N Y Times p45 Ap 9 *46

W^o*s W'^ho in Commerce and Industn*
(1946)

J^XSTW.. BABE Feb. 6. 1895— Aog. 16. 1948
Retired baseball player; began his professional
career -with the minor 'league Baltimore Orioles
(1914) ; -was a player with the American League
Boston Red Sox from 1 914 to 1 920 ; member
of the American League New York Yankees
team from 1920 until his retirement in 1934;
worked briefly for the Boston Braves as plaV'
cr, rice-president, and assistant manager (193o)
and for the^ Brookl\Ti Dodgers as coach in
1938 — both National League teams; established
a gTQt number of basiiall records: led the
American League in home runs (1919-24, 1926-
.31), pla^’cd in the most (ten) \\^orld JSerics,
and others. See Current Biography 1944 Year-
book-

Obituary

N Y Times pl+„I4 Ag 17 *48 por

■TSIHIIQU L EDMUND W(ARE) Feb. 5.

\ T686- Botanist; educator ”

Address: b. c/o Sheffield Scientific School, Y"ale
Umversin*. New Haven, Conn.; h. 459 Pros-
pect St., New Haven 11, Conn-; R.F.D. Wood-
bury', Conn.

Edmund - Sinnott is professor and chair-
man of the department of botanv of Yale Uni-
versin; as well as director of Yale’s Sheffield
Saentific School. He assumed the first named
posts m 1940, the latter title in 1945. As chair-
man of^ the department of botany he has bem
responsible for much of its progress as w-cll as
for its cooperation with the univcrsitv'*s other
sacncc departments and schools. A 'scientist
WTO txdieves, nevertheless, that science alone is
not sufficient for peace in the world but that
^intuaJ A-alucs arc necessary' also to its salva-
tiOTU Sinnott took office in January' 1946 as
president of the American Association for the
Ad\'anccmcnt of Sdcnce.

Bom^ in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Feb-
ruary' y, 1886, Edmund Ware Sinnott is one of
^o so^ of Charles Peter and Jessie Elrira
(bmith) Sinnott His forebears on the ma-
tem^ side are of old New England stock, his
mother teng a descendant of the Rc\'crend
minister of A\^cthcrs-
M(t Connecticut; his paternal grandfather was
grandmother French- Both
parents were teachers.
In 1904 he' graduated from high school in
Bridgewater, where his father, a Harvard
SLhmmu^ Uught g^graphy and geolog 3 ^ in the
Aorm^ Sch<»l. Edmund Sinnott received his
B.A. <0gTee in 1908 from Harvard University"
tb<^e be had majored in biology, had been nA

IwS”! ixKn

elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Y&1<- Colvwsiry Nnrs Bureau
EDMUND VT.j^t^-KOTT “

In 1910 Sinnott received his M-A. degree
from Harvard, and in 1913 his PhD. degree,
writing for his dissertation on the reproductive
structure of the Podocarpineae (evergreens).
Daring his years of postgraduate study he w'as
variously occupied: from 1908 until 1910 and
from 1911 until 1912 be was Austin teaching
fellow and asristant in botany' at Harvard
and in 1910-11 he w'as Sheldon Traveling Fel-
low of Harvard for botanical research in Aus-
ti^asia. Of ffie influences w'hich determined
his choice of his lifew'ork, Sinnott has declared
that his own early’ interest in natural history’
was dcA'cloped by such men as Jeffrej*, Fcrnald,
Thaxt^, Parker, and Castle at Han'ard, and
that his original intention of mal^g zoology
his held was abandoned after doing work m
morphology’^ under Jeffry’- The tw'o years
following his graduate w’ork Sinnott Spent as
instructor at the Harv*ard Forestry’ S<diool and
the Bussey Institution- Then, in 1915 Sinnott
went to the (Connecticut Agricultural College,
where he remained until 1926 as professor of
botany and genetics. For the next eleven years ■
. he served as professor of botany' at Barnard
(College and the y'car after that at Cohimbia-
Since the year 1940 Dr. Sinnott has been
connected with the faculty’ of Yale University*.
He went there, in that y'car, as Sterling pro-
fessor of botany and chairrhan of the depart-
ment of botany*, which positions be contmues,
in 1946, to bold. ^ In 1945 he was appointed
chairman of the dirision of science in the uni-
versity’ as well as director of the Sheffield Sd-.
entific School, which Time has described as'
"the first, and one of . . , [the nation’s] best,
sdratific research centers,” Lewds H, Tiffany,
chairman of the botany department at Nortli-
westem Uni vanity’, claims for his fellow scien-
tist the credit for inspiring progress in the
Yale botany’ department. He reports that since
Sirmott’s arrir’al, the staff of the department
of botany has tr^led and the number of gradu-

- A